YouTube Shares Surprising Statistics On 6th Birthday

YouTube's sixth birthday will be celebrated with a few huge milestones: the site has hit 3 billion views per day.

According to Google's blog, those 3 billion views a day represent a 50 percent increase over last year.

"That's the equivalent of nearly half the world's population watching a YouTube video each day, or every U.S. resident watching at least nine videos a day," Google wrote.

Uploads have spiked as well. Over 48 hours of video are uploaded to the site each minute, a 37 percent increase in the past six months, and a 100 percent increase from last year. Google attributes the growth to technological advances in the service.

"From faster processing of uploads to longer video lengths to the launch of self-service live stream capabilities to partners, we're constantly evolving to provide the best video sharing and viewing experience for you," it wrote.

ComScore ranks YouTube as the top online video property as of April, with over 142 million unique visitors, trailed by VEVO with over 55 million viewers. Facebook, in fourth, has over 46 million viewers.

YouTube announced recently that it would partner with Universal, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros to provide full-length streaming movies soon.